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You said the argument was ridiculous. I said it isn't because that's what we were promised. Why should I not expect it to hold true if I'm playing the game properly?

If I may make a little more clarification; your hyperbolic examples use the letter of the law, while my argument addresses the spirit. They mean two completely different things. One takes things literally, while the other follows the intention behind what was said. If we go by the letter, then you should be able to run around in circles, doing twirly jumps and expect to get max gear shortly after hitting level 80 with minimal grind. That's obviously not what was meant by "playing your way", and you know it.

However, we know world PvE does fall under the veil of play, according to ANet. Prior to ascended gear, a player could get max stat gear from simply exploring and dynamic events. Compare this to other MMOs, WoW for example, where getting max gear was reserved strictly for large-scale raiders. You could craft stuff, but raiding gear was better. You could get PvP gear, but raiding gear was better. GW2 was supposed to change that facet of MMOs and make it not a grind, and not take a long time. Ascended gear threw that right out the window.

Now, I wouldn't be surprised if other play styles start getting access to ascended gear, but I highly doubt the other conditions will carry over. I mean, the first ascended items we got were very grindy to get. What's going to happen when ANet releases the more prestigious skins? Are the weapons we have now supposed to be the hard-to-get aesthetic skins? If so, where are the easy-to-get ugly ones? I'm not expecting any answers from this forum. I just wanted to show how badly ascended gear botched the game for me.

No. "Play how you want to play" is not ridiculous. It was said by the developers of the game. It is reasonable to expect them to keep their promises. Granted, there are extremes that are ridiculous, like your chatting and gathering examples. However, you know full well that what I was advocating is a far cry from that.

It's not my definition of play style you should be questioning, but ANet's. Dungeons, WvWvW, SPvP, PvE, and crafting were the ones they kept touting during release, so it's reasonable to go with those. Gathering is a part of the crafting play style, akin to slaying bandits in Queensdale as part of PvE. That's not a play style. It's a task within the play style of PvE.

Jumps can be messed up, resulting in falling to your death. Skills can be used at inopportune times, resulting in death. There is no risk of failure or punishment from hitting F to gather a node. False equivalent.

I stand by the assertion that socializing is not a game and therefore cannot be played, therefore cannot have play styles. A game is a physical or mental competition conducted according to rules with the participants in direct opposition to each other (http://www.merriam-w...dictionary/game) in the context of a video game (as in, a game is not simply something meant for entertainment purposes, otherwise, watching a movie is a game). Social interaction does not inherently pit one group against another in direct competition, though it may happen. Again, there are no set rules for interaction that result in a win/lose situation. There is punishment/reward, but that is not the same thing. If you greet someone with "gabba gabba gabba", you cannot judge a win or loss. There were no rules to follow, no way to anticipate the results (the person may find it hilarious and wind up liking you, or they may think you're the weirdest thing on the planet and avoid you like Sunday school or anything in between). Socializing is not a game in the same sense as a video game. Period.

Getting suspended is not for breaking the same type of rules. Social norms are not the same as game rules,especially in video games where it's impossible to break rules due to the code not allowing it (ideally, as there are always glitches and exploits)

You kno I have been asking this same counter question to yours from the beginning and never did get a coherent answer so pardon me if I drag it out and rehash it again:
If I'm even more particular than you and just like to gather only, am I justified to demand for a chance for ascended stuff to drop from mining nodes or shrubs?
I want the best, the BIS, but I just want to gather.
Or hey I just want play the socializing aspect of the game, I don't even want to gather! But I still want BIS, just by spending time chatting in the game.
Best of all, it needs to be equally as efficient as those who actually run the dungeons or fractals etc.

Play how you like, within what is given.

There's a difference. I'm actually playing a game, while you just hit the F button. I'm searching for things to discover, while you press the F button. I'm killing monsters, while you press the F button. I'm making some risky jumps for vistas while you press the F button. I can be punished for failure, while you simply need to make sure you have the right text on your gathering tool.

Gathering itself is not a play style. It's an aspect of crafting. Crafting as a whole is a play style and it can get you max level. Eventually, I suspect it will be able to get you max gear as well, but so far, you can't. That still leaves us with the other conditions, though. Can it be done quickly? Yes, it can. Can it be done with minimal grind? Hell no. The gold or items you need to acquire to get ascended gear is pretty hefty, and will only be exacerbated once more crafting disciplines have access to ascended gear. So, even if you actually use crafting as a play style exclusively, you cannot meet all the conditions. This needs to be fixed if ANet wants to stick to their word.

Socializing is also not a play style. It's not even a game. There are no rules (you can greet people in any way you like, regardless of whatever social norms are in place). No winning or game over conditions. Socializing is just something humans do and it always progresses (albeit in ways we may not want or intend). There are good ways to socialize and bad ways, but none of them have anything to do with playing a game. You can succeed at games with people you hate just as well as with people you like. It just depends on the rules of the game and each party's ability to use them to their respective advantages. You play games and thus, you can develop your own play style. You cannot play social interactions.

Your question is a false equivalence. No wonder you don't get an "answer".

But legendaries are cosmetic rewards. They may have additional advantages attached to them, like being able to choose the stats of them at will and having them always maintain maximum quality, but they are still an example of cosmetic-driven end game content. I don't see how you can look at the powerful aura effects most of them have along with the foot prints and think that they're not cosmetic rewards. Like, my Engi gets engulfed in flames. Juggernaut turns you into the Silver Surfer. And so on and so forth.

Legendaries will always be best-in-slot. That means if ANet decides to add gear above ascended, legendaries will become stronger. They could look like dirt and getting one would still be worthwhile. The cosmetic is certainly a factor for them, or at least, it's intended to be (visual appeal will always be subjective), but having the highest stats in the game at all times means the work you put in to getting one will never be wasted. You can't say that about exotics to someone who wants max stats.

OK. So you're not concerned with PvP. You don't want to do fractals/dungeons. You don't want to do daily achievements. All you want to do are world events?

Exotics are more than satisfactory for doing these. Hell, you don't even have to be level 80 for most of them.

Compared to other MMOs out there, taking a month to max out your stats doing in-your-sleep stuff like daily achievements is a minimal grind. Especially compared to the amount of work it takes to get a legendary weapon, let alone something like Foefire's Power, getting ascended gear is significantly easier than achieving the cosmetic rewards that you want.

And yet we still have part of the promise missing. Max stats. What aren't you getting about the word 'and' that connected all three parts of the pitch?

I don't care that exotics are sufficient. I like to be at peak performance. I can't exactly be at peak performance when the peak is slated to keep moving. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it takes a month's worth of laurels just to get a single earring. I don't consider months of work to hit max stats to be "shortly after reaching max level" in the slightest. I don't care how mind-numbingly easy it is. It takes too long. I was promised it wouldn't.

I'm fine with legendary weapons taking a long time to get. They were entirely cosmetic at first (though now they are future proof). It would be cool to get one, but I wouldn't be at a disadvantage (I don't care how small it is or isn't, I want to eliminate as many disadvantages as possible) without it. The grind associated with them is something I was informed about by ANet. It was not a bait and switch like ascended is.